


The Reception

by madaliz



Series: "Invincible" Fic Series [2]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: (Perceived) One-sided Crush, Drunkenness, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-07 06:30:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12227460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madaliz/pseuds/madaliz
Summary: Kagami and Aomine's wedding reception, from the point of view of everyone else.(A series of one-shots focused on different characters. It's not necessary to have read "Invincible" before reading this, but probably preferable.)





	1. Kise

**Author's Note:**

> These one-shots will be about how other characters are feeling after Kagami and Aomine's wedding, and will largely be about their lives than about Aomine and Kagami's. There will be a lot of ships that I didn't focus on at all in the main "Invincible" story, at least two of these one-shots are prologues to slightly longer stories on that character and that relationship (no, they won't be as long as "Invincible"), which is one of the reasons why their endings might not feel entirely like endings. The other reason why that is, is that, well, these fics are supposed to show only what happens during AoKaga's wedding reception, what the characters are thinking about, what they're doing, what they're feeling. There will be flashbacks because of that, but I wanted to limit what I gave away. 
> 
> This isn't what I originally had in mind when I said I'd do companion one-shots to "Invincible" honestly, but I'm kind of excited about this project. I guess I've just been itching to write about adults and experiment with writing about people in different walks of life lol.

Kise’s drunk – or at least, he thinks he is. He can’t think of any other reason for the hallucination he’s currently experiencing. Kasamatsu-senpai couldn’t possibly be at Kagamicchi and Aominecchi’s wedding. He couldn’t possibly be in that oversized blue jacket of his – Kaijou colors – still dressed in JAL’s stuffy pilot uniform sans cap and coat, and walking up to Kise across a room full of NBA All-Stars and their high school friends and acquaintances. He’s had dreams like this, only in those dreams he only ever saw the face of Kasamatsu-senpai as he determinedly stalked up to him in his seat in a bar, a restaurant, a hotel room, or one of the goddamn cabins of one of the airplanes they both regularly fly – it was just the two of them, and it often ended in ways Kise shouldn’t really discuss in public.

He could swear he’s only had enough shots to be tipsy, but there’s no way Kasamatsu-senpai would be here either.

“Momoicchi,” he leans over the bar to tap her on the shoulder, she’s mixing a drink for someone, Kise can’t be bothered to figure out who “is Kasamatsu-senpai really here right now or am I going out of my mind?”

Momoicchi throws him an amused look “He’s really here Ki-chan, I invited him myself.” She doesn’t give him the time to process that or muster a reply before she walks over to whoever asked for that drink.

Kise slumps over the bar. Not a hallucination then, just the machinations of their all too perceptive Teikou manager who no doubt is one hundred percent aware of Kise’s long term seemingly never-ending crush on Kasamatsu Yukio.

“Are you drunk **_already_**?” and here his is, just in time to witness another one of Kise’s mild freak outs. He groans into the wood of the bar, determined not to turn back and humiliate himself further.

The determination does him no good because he’s hopeless and completely lacking in self-control, and before he knows it he’s turning around on his seat to look at the man he’d been mooning over since he was a teenager.

“Not drunk,” he flips his hair in a way that is hopefully more attractive than pathetic considering the probable alcohol stain on his dress shirt from that time he nearly choked on his drink, which was about two seconds after Kasamatsu had walked in “I'm just being dramatic over the power of love.”

Kasamatsu snorts, his nose scrunches and wrinkles in the way Kise adores while his mouth forms a smirk that just about kills him.

“I didn’t know you were coming senpai” he says, casual, very casual.

“I wasn’t,” Kasamatsu shrugs “but I was drinking with some of the crew a few blocks over and they got talking about this reception. I let it slip how I was invited. They said I was stupid if I didn’t come. Wedding of the century and all that.”

“It **_is_** quite historic.” Kise agrees, still casual.

Kasamatsu’s eyes narrow at something to their right “Is that a giant burger?”

“It’s their wedding cake.”  

“Of course it is,” he turns back to Kise “did I miss you making a speech?”

“Not yet,” Kise had completely forgotten about it till right this moment, he’d been planning to joke about doing a striptease, start to take of his shirt and all that, but he doesn’t know if he can do it anymore “but you did miss Midorimacchi analyze their zodiac compatibility in great detail.”

Kasamatsu lets out a laugh, shakes his head “I guess some things don’t change” he pats Kise on the shoulder “Well I’m going to go greet the happy couple and stuff. Stay sober Kise.”

And he walks off, leaving Kise with his heart in his throat and his shoulder burning from the touch.

 

 

-o-

 

 

_There was a time Kise thought he’d be playing basketball forever. He thought he’d head off to some place like Miami, Golden State or San Antonio and work his way up into the NBA Hall of Fame. But life had different plans for him. He learned English in college, played a lot of university basketball, and by the time he was in his third year, he found himself too old to still be dreaming of being an NBA Rookie._

_So he gets drunk one night with some friends, tacks on career paths on a dart board – jobs he’d scribbled down off the top of his head – and he decides his future with an ungraceful flick of his wrist. “Pilot” the gods of fate had told him that night, and it didn’t sound too bad to him._

_He fills up his Aviation Academy applications on his small kitchen table in his messy apartment, watching Aomine and Kagami fulfill the dream he once had on television, finding himself not as jealous as he thought he’d be. He still loved basketball, still ached for the challenge and sense of fulfillment it gave him, a feeling nothing else has quite matched. But there, watching his old friends hoist up a championship trophy, he realizes, basketball was never his_ **life** _. He didn’t know then if flying would be, but he was willing to try._

 _He meets, or rather,_ **reunites** _with Kasamatsu-senpai on the first day of freshman orientation. In more ways than one, it was the beginning of the rest of his life._

 

 

-o-

 

 

He watches Kasamatsu talk with Imayoshi from the other side of the room. They’re old friends, Kise knows. Kept in touch through college, still went out to drink once in a while these days. He probably gets to talk to him less than he gets to talk to Kise, but still he feels like they have a camaraderie Kise will never quite have with Kasamatsu. Maybe it’s just their age (maybe Kise’s just jealous). He knows he’s been staring at them too long, but he’s not being a creeper. He’s just observing – casually observing.

They’re not the only ones he’s been looking at anyway, tons of action in the room. There’s Takao, drunk and giggly, draping himself all over Midorima’s shoulders. Kise can hear him say “Shin-chan-sensei” in a sing-song voice from all the way here, and he smiles into his drink. He wonders if Takao calls him that at the hospital. He wonders if anyone else has followed suit. To their right there’s Akashi –confident, intimidating, somehow still immaculately tidy in his well ironed tuxedo – talking to that Lakers’ head coach like that was just something he did every day. Kise supposed it might be, who knew what sort of important people Akashi met for his job.

There’s the happy couple, of course, stars in their eyes as they alternate between greeting their guests and getting lost in each other. This, Kise admits, he’s jealous of. The contentment of being exactly where you want to be in life, with **_who_** you wanted to experience it with. He doesn’t hate his job, in fact he loves it in a way he didn’t think he would. But it’s not an easy job, and it gets lonely. It’s hard to maintain any sort of romantic relationship when he’s always off in different parts of the world, and when he **_is_** in Japan he’s doing part time modeling gigs to help pay for the apartment and lifestyle being a young pilot just wouldn’t help him with. Sometimes he wonders if the occasional thrills of his job were worth the empty home he always returned to.

His eyes return to Kasamatsu. He’d asked about it once, when they were out for drinks in some hotel in Europe, after flying for eight hours together. _“I like this job,”_ he’d said _“it’s worth it to me”_ and Kise always wishes he had that kind of conviction.

The alarm Momoi had set to alert them all to the start of every speech blares, and Kise startles at the sound. Everyone cheers as Momoi climbs up a chair and starts introducing the next person who’ll be giving a toast. With horror, Kise realizes, that it’s him.

 

 

-o-

 

 

_He found out about Aomine and Kagami’s relationship in their second year of high school. Aomine had, quite uncharacteristically in retrospect, invited the whole team from Teikou to have lunch and play street basketball. He just blurts it out over burgers and milkshakes like it’s nothing. Kise remembers being shocked, and then doubly shocked to find that he was the only one who was shocked. Akashi and Kuroko very quickly gave their congratulations, as if they had already figured it out long before. Midorima began rambling on about how their zodiac signs clashed, and Murasakibara had little to offer aside from a bored “I see”. Which left Kise to squeeze out the details._

_“When did this start?” he’d asked, and five sets of eyes turned to look at him quizzically “I mean congrats, happy for you, but—well I knew you were close I guess maybe it should have been obvious and you’ve changed a lot since meeting Kagamicchi for sure but uh –” he clears his throat, aware of his rambling “—well I just wonder how you got there I guess.”_

_Aomine looked like he thought on it a bit and then said “Well I wanted to kiss him, so I did. Then he wanted to talk about it, so we did. And now we’re dating.”_

_Kise had thought, at that moment, that it couldn’t possibly have been that simple. There must be a novel’s worth of details, he’d thought, that Aomine was leaving out._

_“That’s it? You just kissed him out of nowhere?” he remembers asking, more than a touch incredulous._

_“Well yeah,” Aomine shrugs “don’t worry, I told Satsuki to turn around before I did it so nobody saw.”_

_Akashi had said “Oh Daiki…” in a soft voice beside him and Kuroko was shaking with laughter at that point. When Midorima shook his head and said “typical” with his usual faux disdain, Kise began to realize that for Aomine, it really was that simple. There was no jumping over hurdles for him, he barreled through them._

_It was just in his personality. Something Kise couldn’t copy._

 

-o-

 

 

“That was a heart-warming speech Kise-kun,” Kuroko says dryly “but I thought you planned to do a strip tease to see if anyone was interested in a wedding hook up.”

Kise groans “Kurokocchi, never let me hear those words come out of your mouth ever again.”

“I’m quoting you word for word from our group chat,” and it’s a sign that Kise knows him well that he can hear the hint of amusement in Kuroko’s monotone voice, even half-way drunk as he is “why are you suddenly so embarrassed?”

He sighs into his drink “I think you know the answer to that question so please leave me alone to die in shame.”

Kuroko gives him an awfully judgmental sidelong glance “Have you at least talked to him?”

“Not since he first said hi to me no,” he waves his hands “but I mean, we’re in a room full of famous basketball players, **_Magic Johnson is here_** , I shouldn’t take up his time when he could, you know, meet people.”

“And I suppose this is how you talk yourself out of interacting with him at every gathering.”

“Magic Johnson is not at every gathering!”

“Which is exactly why it’s just baffling to me that you’ve never come clean to him about how much you want to kiss him.”

“I’m not Aominecchi,” Kise growls “I can’t just do that out of the blue.”

“I didn’t know you were so invested in romantic build up Kise-kun,” Kuroko gestures towards the room “but Aomine-kun just got married today after winning six NBA Championships so I would think bullheaded straightforwardness isn’t something to sneeze at.”

“That sort of thing only works with Kagamicchi,” Kise mutters “they were probably already in love before it happened, that’s why it was so easy.”

“Kise-kun,” Kuroko sighs “you and I both know it wasn’t easy. The fact that we’re at this party is a miracle, and it only happened because they were both brave enough to keep pushing forward and dense enough not to be too anxious about it.”

“Well then I’m a coward. I can’t do it. At least not today.” He lets his gaze fall on Kasamatsu again, where he’s nervously talking with some of Kagami and Aomine’s current teammates “Why is this so hard Kurokocchi? How could Momoicchi do this to me?”

“She’s your friend and she wants you to be happy.” He leans away from the bar “All of us do.” He smiles, a rare sight that Kise always loves to see “My turn to speak is coming up soon, I hope you’re ready to be moved to tears.”

Kise laughs “I’m sure if anyone could do it, it’s you Kurokocchi.”

 

 

-o-

 

 

_He hadn’t known it was a crush until they’d reunited. After Kasamatsu graduated, he’d think about him once in a while, was happy to see him whenever he visited Kaijou or whenever the team had reunions. But there was never a burning desire to see him again, a fondness he never quite let go of yes, but nothing like the longing for him he felt during those first few solo flights on tiny old planes, delivering packages to tiny little airstrips in far off towns he’d never heard of. Nothing like the bundle of joy and nerves his chest turned into whenever they were co-pilots. Nothing like the mini-heart attack he has these days when he walks into a room._

_No, in those days, Kasamatsu-senpai was a happy thought, a fond memory that would resurface once in a while to remind him of some of the best days of his life. It was easy to think of him, easier to be around him. It’s still easy to be around him, still wonderful, but it’s coupled now with internal screaming and above average perspiration. He doesn’t notice it until it’s gotten so bad he can no longer deny it – that he likes a man and a co-worker at that. It’s a distraction he can’t afford to have as a pilot, but luckily he’s always been great at focusing on the task at hand and ignoring everything else._

_The thing is, before this realization, he had never really liked anyone that way. He’s been popular all his life but he’s never really felt this way about anyone. Maybe, he thinks, he had always felt this way about Kasamatsu-senpai somewhere deep down, and it just took years, almost a decade, to simmer into the feeling he can now feel deep in his gut and soul. Yet for all his mental poetry on the matter, he’s still not quite sure it’s anything like what Aomine and Kagami have – something that was clearly forever, as far as forever can exist in their fleeting human lives._

_This, among many other reasons, is why he does not act on his feelings. Kurokocchi calls it cowardice—excuses—but in the same breath, tells him he just needs to take his time._ How much longer exactly _, Kise wonders,_ how much time is enough time to be sure. _He takes comfort in the fact that for all their scolding of him, it isn’t as if his friends have figured out life either, let alone romance. Akashi and Midorima put on a good show of being put together, but it’s not like they’ve taken the next step forward with the people_ **they’re** _currently interested in. He’s not even sure they realize their feelings. Kise’s at least gotten there._

_“Now if only you’d stop making excuses,” an inner voice tells him—it usually sounds a lot like senpai._

 

-o-

 

 

“You have a stain on your dress shirt.” Kasamatsu plops himself down on the vacant bar stool to Kise’s right. Kise pretends his heart doesn’t jump up to his throat at the sound of his voice.

He gulps down his drink instead and replies “I’ve had it since you walked in senpai,” _I have it_ **because** _you walked in_ “Were you too mesmerized by the celebrities to notice?”

“I suppose I just don’t make a habit of checking you out.”

Kise chokes on his drink “Was that lewd humor senpai?” he asks and then, internally _“Are you trying to kill me?”_

 “ ** _Of course_** you’d take it that way.” Kasamatsu rolls his eyes “Although I guess I did walk into that one.”

“Senpai, not to be rude, but what else could _‘checking you out’_ possibly mean. Please tell me you haven’t said that to anyone thinking it just meant you were checking what their outfit looked like.”

“I’m not naïve you brat.” Kasamatsu grunts, giving his shoulder a light punch “Guess I just spoke without thinking today. Hard to not be on a bit of a high in this place, and I’ve only had one drink.”

Kise knows what he means, but he probably doesn’t have exactly the same reasons for thinking that as the man beside him. For one thing, Kasamatsu’s presence has a lot more to do with Kise’s weird mood today than anything else. More specifically, his presence in this celebration of love is doing things to Kise. He thinks he gets why people hook up at weddings. They leave you feeling a bit desperate for affection, or at least they did for the people who wanted it. Kise only wants it from one person though.

“You’ve been drinking here all night,” Kasamatsu frowns, looking squarely at the glass of – Kise forgets now what he’s drinking exactly “thought you’d be mingling more, but I think even **_I_** did more of that tonight.”

Kise shrugs with one shoulder, he doesn’t meet Kasamatsu’s eyes and stares at his drink trying to remember what the heck it is “I mingled enough earlier tonight.” He gulps down the drink – that’s definitely gin, but there’s other flavors too, he probably ordered a funny sounding cocktail “I guess I’m just in a drinking mood senpai.”

“Alright,” Kise can hear him trying to be patient “why?”

“Can’t I be? It’s not like I’m flying tomorrow senpai.” Even to his own ears he sounds petulant.

Kasamatsu sighs “Is this one of those times where you wonder if you made the right decision with your life? You’re too young for a midlife crisis Kise.”

“It’s not that, I like my job senpai.”

“Then what’s wrong? Why are you drinking away the whole night when you’re at the so-called wedding of the century? Well, reception I guess, but the point stands.”

“Honestly? It’s you. It’s how I haven’t been able to talk to you. It’s how I’ve always been looking for challenges in my life because they make me feel alive. It’s why I played basketball, it’s why I’ve decided on a job that’s highly technical and puts hundreds of lives on my hands on a regular basis. You make me feel as alive as flying in a small dingy plane through a thunderstorm does, and yet I can’t talk to you about that. I just can’t. I’ve never hated myself in my life but for this I kind of do.”

Is what he doesn’t say.

“Honestly? I’m just lonely,” is what he does say, and he glances to his side just in time to see a look of sympathy and fondness flash through Kasamatsu’s face before it settles back to the annoyance that Kise is used to, but knows now to be a put on.

But then it morphs into a smile – a small one, but it’s enough that Kise’s whole world slows down “I know how you feel” he says, softly, privately.

Kise looks into his blue eyes, clear as a sunny noon sky, and smiles back.  

 


	2. Akashi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was supposed to write about Midorima and Takao second but GOD, sad gay lawyer Akashi just happened to me. It's almost 5am and I haven't slept, if I have errors... that's why lol. 
> 
> I hope this is a believable enough adult Akashi and adult Kuroko. Did I think I would be writing AkaKuro? no lol. I'm not even big on the ship but somehow it's what made SENSE in this universe.

Akashi’s beginning to regret bringing his work phone on this trip. One of his clients, a retired Minister of Justice, keeps calling him to complain about the partner standing in for him and Satsuki. He’s an important client, very good for the firm, he’s one of the reasons Akashi had ultimately decided to bring his work phone with him despite having every intention to be on vacation and to immerse himself in being happy for his friends.

“The only reason he keeps calling you,” Satsuki says “is that you haven’t put your foot down with him. Unlike you, I made it clear that I won’t answer any calls during my personal time, and any emergency should be forwarded to me via my secretary. I don’t want my clients calling me up at three in the morning for a useless question.”

“It’s only early evening in Japan.” He reasons, though even to his ears there’s no heart in it.

“Well it’s two am here,” Satsuki crosses her arms “and he knows that. You’re too soft on this one.”

She doesn’t ask the question he knows she wants to ask, possibly because she already has an answer to it. He hears it anyway, in his own voice, ringing in his head as it does each time he finds himself biting his tongue with this one specific client.

 _“_ _Is it because he’s a friend of your father’s?”_ his inner self asks.

He wants to say no, he wants to say that that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he’s entertained his inane phone calls three times during this entire reception. At one time he might have said it decisively, but with age comes the daunting realization that he will never be quite free of his father, even when the man is not actively trying to control him.

Satsuki sighs at his silence, “Akashi-kun,” she says, scolding, determined “just switch off your phone and save us both the grief. I don’t want to keep hearing about Minamoto-san’s gripes when my friends just had the wedding of the century, thanks to me no less.”

Perhaps it’s the sentimental air of the night or the alcohol in his system but Akashi finds himself wanting to whine, to plead for her to cut him some slack. None of this shows on his face of course, maintaining the appearance of calm is a basic requirement of their profession, and it’s something he’d learned to master as a child. He’s confident that even Satsuki, astute as she is, can’t pick up on his internal monologue.

And she doesn't, but Satsuki continues to look at him expectantly, eventually holding her hand out, asking for his phone. Akashi makes a show of switching his phone off, waving the blackened screen in front of her face so she knows he doesn’t intend sneak off with it to receive a fourth phone call.

She grabs the phone from him and pockets it. “Much better,” she says “make sure you’re ready for your speech Akashi-kun.”

She disappears back into the crowd, and Akashi sighs.

He senses him before he speaks. “I’m surprised Momoi-san didn’t do that earlier.”

“You’ve been watching us.” He says, turning to Tetsuya with a smile. He wonders if he looks sheepish.

Tetsuya smiles back. “There are many interesting things going on in this room,” he says, almost disinterestedly “for instance, Takao-kun is now sitting on Midorima-kun’s lap.”

“Goodness,” Akashi searches for the mop of green hair, and finds him frowning at Takao Kazunari who is indeed sitting on his lap and squeezing his cheeks “Shintarou ought to be more honest with himself.”

Tetsuya lets out a puff of air. Akashi recognizes it as a laugh. “He and Kise-kun both.”

“There are no more barriers for Shintarou. Ryouta has valid concerns, Kasamatsu-san is his superior.”

“If you ask me, it’s the other way around. Kise-kun and Kasamatsu-san have a straightforward relationship, they’re fond of each other, friends and co-workers. Kasamatsu-san is more his senior than his boss. It’s a given that they’ll have to be discreet, but they don’t have the… **_history_ ** that Midorima-kun and Takao-kun have.”

Shintarou has not once spoken about the tension between him and Takao since the beginning of his residency. It never occurred to Akashi to ask, it wasn’t, he realizes, the sort of thing they would talk about. He isn’t Satsuki, who’s made it her mission to meddle ever since Daiki and Taiga began their relationship. He isn’t like Tetsuya either, who had the tendency to meddle when he’s had enough of someone’s dilly-dallying. No, Akashi preferred to let his friends live their lives.

It wasn’t that he didn’t think it was his business, he just didn’t want them to ever feel like he was trying to control them. They had the right to their own choices, their own mistakes. As long as they’re not destroying their lives who is Akashi to tell them what to do? He’ll help them through the consequences, but their lives were theirs to live.

“Have you actually spoken to Shintarou about this?” it comes out, he hopes, as non-judgmental.

“No,” Tetsuya swirls the ice in his glass “surprisingly, I’ve spoken to Takao-kun.”

 _Well_ , Akashi thinks, _that I didn’t expect_.

“When was this?” he asks, curious now.

Tetsuya takes a slow sip of his drink, Akashi wonders if it’s on purpose, for dramatic effect.

“It was when we were waiting for Midorima-kun at the airport, his flight had been delayed three hours.”

“I see, so did he spontaneously open up to you or did you cross-examine him.”

Tetsuya huffs out a laugh “Akashi-kun, people don’t cross-examine people in real life.”

Akashi smiles “Ah, I see. You don’t see my work as ‘real life’.”

“I’m sure you know what I mean, so I’m not answering that.” Tetsuya shakes his head “Takao-kun just wondered aloud if he should even be the one picking Midorima-kun up. I asked him why and he said that Midorima-kun doesn’t know what to do with him these days.”

Interesting. The phrasing implies a change in their relationship. It means Shintarou’s alleged inability to deal with Takao Kazunari in a way they both find “normal” is a recent phenomenon. This would not have been surprising to Akashi a few years ago, as Shintarou had lost touch with Takao during medical school. But since reuniting, they had seemed to fall into old habits. Perhaps it’s a change only palpable to the two of them until it is pointed out to an outsider. Certainly, Akashi thinks, if they were still in college, Takao would be on the floor now, a drunk giggling mess, instead of still sitting in Shintarou’s lap.

“I think,” Tetsuya says slowly “something big has happened between them.”

Despite himself, Akashi wonders what that is. Takao acts no different than he remembered. If anything, he supposes, it’s Shintarou who’s different. He very much looks like he wants to push Takao off him right now – the stiffness of his body is screaming discomfort – but he also looks like he’s deliberately trying not to do it. Which is strange now that Tetsuya has him thinking about it, Shintarou has always been one to refuse if it was even remotely socially acceptable. Often, he would refuse even if it wasn’t.

“Do you have any idea what it was?”

Tetsuya’s eyes widen slightly as he turns to him “It’s not like you to want to gossip Akashi-kun.”

“You’ve made me interested.” Akashi grabs the nearest bottle of liquor and refills his glass “As I see it, this must have been going on for quite a while. I do not know Takao as well and intimately as, say, I know you –” Tetsuya raises an eyebrow “—but I would guess it is not a typical thing for him to talk about what is either an insecurity, a regret, or a worry that’s been bogging his mind down. Possibly, he has been unable to speak to anyone about this matter, and couldn’t help but throw a comment at someone who’s known Shintarou longer than he has. Whatever the case, the fact that he mentioned it at all means that he’s been thinking about it for some time.” Akashi takes a sip of his drink, it is, unfortunately, brandy. “Now,” he clears his throat “what makes this a bit of a mystery to me, is that Takao seems much less uncomfortable than Shintarou does.”

Tetsuya is silent for a moment before asking “Are you suggesting we theorize on our friend’s love life?”

Akashi pauses “Is this strictly a love problem? I thought you said it’s more complicated than that.”

A rare incredulous expression graces Tetsuya’s face “Are you now implying, that love isn’t complicated?”

“Well, I don’t really have an opinion on the matter. I was thinking in terms of love being one category of a problem, concerning solely feelings. The singularity would make it “simple” as opposed to a problem composed of things not just related to love but also other things like their work hierarchy. In the latter case, the problem of feelings is compounded with a lot of other external factors, it is, to use my earlier words “more complicated” than a problem merely concerning feelings. I would argue that while love is **_difficult_ ** , it isn’t actually compli— Are you laughing at me?”

Tetsuya’s hunched over, shaking. “Are you drunk Akashi-kun?” he asks in a tight breathless voice.

“Ah,” he looks back on his past three minutes of rambling “I didn’t think I was until just now.”

“Have you been answering your clients' calls like this?”

“I hope not,” he sighs “though it’s probably why I’m so out of it. Most lawyers drink or smoke excessively Tetsuya, it’s a miracle we don’t all die early.”

“And yet you all talk like your unhealthy lifestyle is the best thing that’s ever happened to any of you.”

The truth is, Akashi thinks, they all act like it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to them because otherwise they’d go insane. Emotional detachment isn’t ideal when your job’s ultimate goal is justice, and is at any rate, not truly possible for human beings, at least not entirely—so they default to the next best thing, lying to yourself that everything is ok until, by strength of conviction, it becomes true some way or other. Well – at least that’s how Akashi sees it. Some people may just have been truly brainwashed into thinking that this highly hierarchical and aggressive world is an amazing place to be in.

“Akashi-kun,” Tetsuya says, in that tight voice again, that tells him he’s barely suppressing laughter “you’re talking out loud.”

“Ah,” he looks at the brandy in his hand with a frown, then starts heading to the restrooms to throw it into a sink.

  


-o-o-o-

  


_When Daiki and Taiga first bring up going to the NBA with them, their immediate reaction (and Akashi is included in this) is to say they’re going too. Of course, when you’re young –a teenager in high school who has been called a miracle over and over again for the last few years of your life—you think that you can do anything. You think that life will go exactly the way you planned it to while you were fifteen, when in fact, it usually doesn’t, and when it does it is a pleasant surprise or a miracle in itself. Daiki and Taiga’s resilient long-term romance and whirlwind success in the most famous professional basketball league in the world is one of those miracles. Akashi’s life is only filled with pleasant surprises._

_At twenty he watches his friends get drafted into the NBA, and at twenty-one he watches them hoist a golden trophy up in the air with the triumphant smiles he recognized and remembered from that day when he first tasted defeat. It is also at twenty-one, after Ryouta calls him to say he’s quitting college and going to an Aviation Academy, that Akashi decides he will do something else with his life, something that’s not basketball. He is the last one to do so._

_Right after they graduate high school, Shintarou announces that he is entering a pre-med course for college, with the intention to move on to medical school. He will continue to play basketball, he’d said, but realistically speaking, he doubts he could get into the NBA from a Japanese university. Ryouta had been indignant, Atsushi apathetic, Tetsuya was clearly unhappy but supportive, Satsuki sighed as if she had been expecting it, Taiga and Daiki were no longer around, and Akashi – well he didn’t quite know how to react._

_He still did not know how to react, a year into college, when Atsushi announces he is moving with Himuro Tatsuya to Los Angeles to apprentice at a patisserie._ What an absolute shock _, he’d thought at the time,_ I never knew Atsushi could ever want this. _And as it turns out, while he was busy with his college basketball team and studying the subjects for the pre-law course he’d taken as a compromise with his father, Atsushi was having a massive fight with Himuro Tatsuya about his lost potential. It is unclear to Akashi if they’re dating –he’s been to their LA apartment, with their separate bedrooms and single beds and their neatly segregated belongings—but even back then he thought, what a curiously couple-y thing to fight about, what a curiously couple-y solution. (If they are a couple, did they skip the passions of young love and jump straight into the sexless old marriage that seemed so common with heterosexuals?)_

 _And then there was Tetsuya, the biggest surprise of them all, who reveals to him over dinner one night that he hasn’t been playing basketball for a year, but he’s continued to learn English._ “Maybe I’ll take my master’s degree in America,” _he’d said_ “be good enough to become a translator.” _Akashi remembers being in a state of shock that Tetsuya of all people had quit, he remembers getting through the conversation on auto-pilot and Tetsuya giving him a look that had almost seemed like pity when he’d driven him home. It’s not until he’s back in his own bed, staring at his own ceiling when he thinks to ask_ “Why?”.

 

-o-o-o-

 

“Do you remember why you quit basketball?”

He’s asking this, he knows, completely out of nowhere. Tetsuya had followed him to the restroom – apparently expecting him to be throwing up into a toilet—but finds him instead, calmly pouring the ice and brandy in his glass into the sink, staring at it expressionlessly as it goes down the drain. He does it, he knows too, in the most dramatic fashion, his hand raised high, his pinky finger up, his eyes trained on his own reflection and the long trail of the disgusting yellowish-brown liquid he had accidentally poured into his glass and that he was now pouring into a sink. He must have looked like he was going mad.

Tetsuya was no doubt thinking this as well, he approached Akashi as if he were a wild animal – wary, he presumed, that Akashi might throw down his glass and send its jagged pieces splattering everywhere. He doesn’t, he gingerly puts it down onto the sink, turns to Tetsuya and asks the question he has never been able to bring up sober.

This does not relax Tetsuya, if anything, it makes him tenser. It makes him look at Akashi not only like he is a wild animal but also as if he is a venomous snake already biting into him and slowly poisoning him to death.

“I never quit basketball.” Tetsuya says. “And we can’t talk about this here.”

Not here? What does he mean? In this place? In this bathroom? In this wedding reception of two people who’ve achieved what seemed only a far-off dream? In this lifetime?

“Well,” he says “I don’t think I will ever be drunk enough to ask this again.”

This makes Tetsuya frown – an uncharacteristically visible downward tilt of his mouth.

“And just how drunk are you Akashi-kun?” he asks.

“Enough to admit I felt betrayed the night you broke up with me.”

“The night that I **_what_ **?”

“Sorry I misspoke,” _how embarrassing_ “I meant, I’m drunk enough to admit that when you told me you were quitting basketball I felt so betrayed it was as if you had just broken up with me after we’d been married for fifty years.”

Tetsuya doesn’t answer him right away, that same pitying look from many years ago is on his face. It’s clear to Akashi that he’s known all this time. And though he has no right to Tetsuya’s every thought and emotion, still, it feels like another betrayal. _Why am I so dramatic tonight_ , he thinks –he’d thought he was over this, he’d though that he was comfortable enough with his own life not to be bothered by why all his friends –especially Tetsuya, the person he thought to be the most resilient one—had let go of what he had once thought was their collective dream.

He’s too young to have a mid-life crisis. And he doesn’t even hate his job or his life, being a lawyer is as exciting as it is frustrating, and when you take such a wide variety of cases as Akashi does, life is far from dull. No, this isn’t about **_what_ ** his life has become, it’s **_why_ **.

He knows they haven’t left him, he knows this every time he takes a breather from work and finds that Ryouta has sent a dozen selfies of himself in far off places and Daiki has been complaining about it. He knows this every time he meets Shintarou and Tetsuya for dinner and he ends up smiling the entire night. He knows this every time Satsuki forces him to leave the office because he hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in a week. But that day, the day when Tetsuya said he’s stopped playing basketball seriously, the day when he had known that it would only be a matter of time before Ryouta quit too, he felt abandoned and alone. Realistically,he knows, he wouldn’t have made it into the NBA, but that didn’t stop him from feeling like they’d all left him behind. But then again, he thought he was over this.

“Akashi-kun,” Tetsuya says slowly “let’s go get you some water.”

 

-o-o-o-

 

_He finds out about the wedding when Satsuki sends him an e-mail detailing the amount of breaks she will need to take to plan it._

_“In under 24 hours, the world will know that the two best basketball players to come out of Japan are not only together but getting married. Since I am planning this wedding of the century, I am sending this to you now so we can start drafting an e-mail to the senior partners about why I can’t be on-call as much as I usually am for the next six months.”_

_Akashi couldn’t say no (although, it’s also true that she didn’t really ask). They spend a couple of hours of that very night writing the most convincing arguments either of them had ever created in their entire careers as lawyers thus far, and Satsuki ends up getting what she wants._

_“It was the most bizarrely convincing e-mail I have ever received,” all their senior partners had said, and for the next six months, Akashi would find out that Satsuki’s increased free time would be at the expense of his own._

_He gets the formal invitation to the wedding a week later. Before that, he watches the press conference on TV like everyone else. Then he berates Daiki and Taiga for not telling them in their group chat with the rest their friends. He doesn’t stop to think about what their getting married could_ **mean**.

_“Did you know?” he asks Tetsuya during one of their dinners “That they were planning to get married, that is.”_

_Tetsuya had given him a look, one he knows well, one that all of them in their group understand to mean_ “I can’t believe you’re asking me this question”.

 _“Frankly,” Tetsuya said “I don’t think_ **they** _knew they were getting married until one of them blurted it out accidentally.”_

_Akashi had laughed at that “So little confidence in them, as usual.”_

_“It’s not that,” and Tetsuya doesn’t sound the least bit teasing “I just think this is a formality that never occurred to them until retirement was finally something they could reasonably do in the near future.”_

_“Retirement?” he wasn’t able to control the surprise in his voice “Have they told you that they’re planning on retiring?”_

_“They’re tossing the idea around, we’re all turning thirty after all.” he remembers, vividly the rush to his head, the disbelief. Tetsuya either didn’t notice or had ignored him “If all goes well, they’ll retire by thirty-four, otherwise -- well they both say they’re ready for their careers to end at thirty. They’ve more than proven themselves, they said.”_

_“They’re-- but they love this life, it’s what they’ve always wanted.”_

_“I guess they’re just tired of hiding.” Tetsuya said._

_Akashi couldn’t believe his ears._ Why would they do this to themselves? _he’d thought._ They’re already there, they’ve already made it. Why risk the life they’ve always wanted? _He understood, they loved each other, but that didn’t mean they had to sacrifice their dream. At that moment, he couldn’t think of anything except the absurdity of it._

_“Akashi-kun,” Tetsuya’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts and into their conversation “just what are you thinking about?”_

_“How weird it will be if Taiga and Daiki retire.” he answered._

_“I’m sure it won’t happen too soon, they have the support of the team owners, they’re too important to the team for this to matter.”_

_“There will be some backlash.”_

_“Well, that’s unavoidable, but their fan base in California won’t abandon them for the most part I think, they might even gain new fans.”_

_“Still it’s… It’s surreal to think of them not playing.”_

_“Well,” Tetsuya's words still ring in his ears “everyone has to stop sometime.”_

 

-o-o-o-

 

“Everyone has to stop sometime.” Akashi echoes the words now, in their corner of the room, where he’s half-sprawled on a chair, bow tie loosened, Tetsuya at his side with a glass of water on hand.

“Stop what Akashi-kun?” he asks patiently.

“Basketball,” he mutters softly “you said that to me the last time we had dinner.”

Tetsuya doesn’t answer him right away. He can’t bear to look at him. He keeps an arm over his eyes and fights the impending headache he feels. After what feels like an hour, Tetsuya finally answers.

“Have you by any chance, been angry about the rest of us not pursuing professional basketball this entire time?”

“That makes me sound petty and bitter.”

“Then explain to me, and don’t skimp on words on my account, exactly what it is you’re upset about.”

 _Why did I open my big mouth_ , Akashi thinks, _I can never take this back now._

The truth, Akashi knows, is that he is that petty. He **_is_ ** bitter. He knows he’s being entirely selfish about this. His friends are allowed to do whatever they want with their life, they’re allowed to make their own choices, their own mistakes. They’re their own people! He doesn’t control them! There’s absolutely no reason why Akashi should be so upset or even **_angry_ ** at them because they didn’t chose what he wanted for them. There is no rational or fair reason to feel this way -- but he does.

How embarrassing, how utterly ridiculous. Tetsuya would be right to be mad at him for this. But of course, Tetsuya is nothing but surprising to him.

“It’s alright to be upset you know,” he says “I won’t take it against you Akashi-kun. Sometimes I’m disappointed in myself too, but I don’t have regrets.”

Akashi pulls his arm away from his eyes, and turns his head just enough to look at Tetsuya. “You said you wanted to quit your job.”

“Not because I regret pursuing it. I just want something else now.” Tetsuya sets the glass of water on the table next to them, places a hand on Akashi’s knee “It’s alright to change.”

“But I haven’t,” he smiles ruefully “I haven’t changed. I’m still letting my father control me even when he’s not there, I still desperately feel like I need to win all the time, I still want to be in control of everything even when I can’t, I’m--” he shakes his head “At times I feel as if I still have one foot in high school while the rest of you are already miles away from it.”

Tetsuya squeezes his knee reassuringly before saying “Well you’re apparently still as dramatic as you used to be.”

Akashi gapes at him in disbelief “I am being completely serious, these are my painfully truthful drunken confessions.”

“And I suppose this makes you one of the cool kids now.”

“Tetsuya.”

“Akashi-kun.”

Akashi sighs.

“I’m serious,” he says, putting his hand over Tetsuya’s on his knee “I feel like you’re all so far away from me, even though that makes no sense.”

“Would you say it’s a bit like all of your friends becoming geniuses at the sport you love while you desperately try to catch up and make yourself useful?”

“Are **_you_ ** still bitter about that?”

“No,” Tetsuya rubs his forehead with his free hand “that’s exactly my point.”

“I thought I had gotten over this,” Akashi closes his eyes again “I swear to you I really thought I was done feeling this way. All it took was a lot of alcohol and it all came rushing back.”

“Maybe you weren’t quite as over it as you’d thought.”

“Maybe, I’m sure there’s truth in that.” he sighs again, long and heavy “I’m not really upset with any of you. It’s quite complicated. I suppose in the simplest terms I’m just upset we’re all growing up so fast. I feel as if, if Taiga and Daiki retired, that would be it, we would be closing the book on the best days of our life.”

“Because none of us would be playing basketball anymore?”

“Precisely,” Akashi purses his lips “And believe me I know exactly how ridiculous it is. I wish I had control over what I’m feeling.”

“Well,” Tetsuya says softly “I suppose I do understand that.” He pets Akashi’s knee absentmindedly, looking as if he’s turning over the things he’d just heard in his mind.

Akashi places his hand over Tetsuya’s again, stops his movement, runs his thumb over his bony knuckles. He looks up, into Tetsuya’s eyes, though his stare is not met. Tetsuya is too deep in thought.

“So are you two dating or what?” the voice of Alexandra Garcia startles them both into sitting up straight, hands retreating back to their sides.

“Dating?” Tetsuya regains his bearings first.

Alex looks back and forth between them, taking a long sip from the bottle of red wine she seems to have commandeered “Well I guess that answers that question,” she mutters, and then, more loudly “Why not?”

“Why…” Akashi clears his throat “Why are we not dating?”

“Yeah,” she takes another swig of her wine “do you just not want to ruin your friendship or what.”

 _We don’t want to date each other,_ Akashi wants to say, though for some reason he can’t quite get himself to open his mouth right now.

“It’s exactly that Alex-san,” Akashi’s head turns to Tetsuya so fast he gets dizzy “we’re fine the way we are,” he threads their fingers together, squeezing Akashi’s hand.

Alex snorts “Well,” she says “I seem to remember two married idiots talking shit like that too, but they were in high school,” she shrugs “well it’s your life.” She struts back into the crowd, still coordinated and graceful in a way Akashi only wishes he could be when he’s drunk.

“Do you want to go back to the hotel?” Tetsuya asks.

Akashi looks at their tangled hands. He squeezes Tetsuya’s hand back and says “Sure.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like Satsuki and Akashi have a lot of skill sets which would make for great lawyers. It's that and the fact that I'm in law school and I want to write a sad gay lawyer story, that brought me to this lol. It's also practice for writing in Akashi's POV. I still don't know how the longer sequels to this is going to be like, but I think I'll work on an aokaga one-shot next, separate from this reception series, while I figure out how to write in Midorima's pov lol.


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